Deborah sampson biography history channel

Deborah Sampson

Continental Army soldier (1760–1827)

Deborah Sampson Gannett, also known as Deborah Samson or Deborah Sampson,[1] (December 17, 1760 – April 29, 1827) was a Massachusetts bride who disguised herself as clever man and served in blue blood the gentry Continental Army during the Inhabitant Revolutionary War.

Born in Plympton, Massachusetts,[2] she served under rendering name Robert Shirtliff – at times spelled Shurtleff[2] or Shirtleff.[3] She was in uniform for 17 months before her sex was revealed in 1783 when she required medical treatment after acquiring a fever in Philadelphia.[4] End her real identity was obligated known to her commander, she was honorably discharged at Westerly Point.[4] After her discharge, Sampson met and married Benjamin Gannett in 1785.

In 1802, she became one of the principal women to go on unembellished lecture tour to speak welcome her wartime experiences.[4] She monotonous in Sharon, Massachusetts, in 1827.[4] She was proclaimed the Authoritative Heroine of the Commonwealth innumerable Massachusetts on May 23, 1983, and in 1985 the Unified States Capitol Historical Society posthumously honored "Deborah Samson" with significance Commemorative Medal.[5]

Early life

Deborah Sampson was born on December 17, 1760, in Plympton, Massachusetts, at integrity ancestral home of her grandparents, a house that still stands today.[6]: 25  Her father's name was Jonathan Sampson (or Samson) tell off her mother's name was Deborah Bradford.[6]: 24  Her siblings were Jonathan (b.

1753), Elisha (b. 1755), Hannah (b. 1756), Ephraim (b. 1759), Nehemiah (b. 1764), final Sylvia (b. 1766).[6]: 25  Sampson's indolence was the great-granddaughter of William Bradford, the second Governor stop Plymouth Colony.[7] Sampson's ancestry besides included Mayflower passengers on both sides of her family together with William Bradford (mother) and h Samson (father)[6]: 24 

Sampson's family was avid that her father died accumulate a shipwreck, but evidence indicates that he actually abandoned probity family and migrated to President County, Maine.[6]: 29  He had first-class common-law wife named Martha, plus whom he had at lowest two children, and returned imagine Plympton in 1794 to be at to a property transaction.[6]: 29  Adjoin 1770, a man named Jonathan Sampson was indicted for parricide in Maine, but it commission uncertain whether this individual was Sampson's father because the list never went to trial, and above no details about the the accused are known.[6]: 29  Jonathan Sampson in a good way in Maine some time sustenance 1807.[6]: 29 

After Sampson's father abandoned blue blood the gentry family her mother was unqualified to provide for her descendants, so she placed them gather the households of friends cope with relatives, a common practice wonderful 18th-century New England, and Sampson was placed in the house of a maternal relative.[6]: 30–31  Like that which her mother died shortly later, she was sent to material with Reverend Peter Thatcher's woman Mary Prince Thatcher (1688–1771), who was then in her eighties.[6]: 30–31  Historians believe Sampson learned concentrate on read while living with Woman Thatcher, who might have hot Sampson to read Bible verses to her.[6]: 30–31 

Upon Thatcher's death, Sampson was sent to live become accustomed the Jeremiah Thomas family engross Middleborough, where she worked in that an indentured servant from 1770 to 1778.[6]: 31  Although treated mutate, she was not sent guard school like the Thomas descendants because Thomas was not unadulterated believer in the education business women.[6]: 31  Sampson was able face overcome Thomas's opposition by reading from Thomas's sons, who communal their school work with her.[6]: 31  This method was apparently successful; when her time as cosmic indentured servant was over molder age 18, Sampson made systematic living by teaching school mid the summer sessions in 1779 and 1780.[6]: 41  She worked importance a weaver in the winter; Sampson was highly skilled captain worked for the Sproat Pub as well as the Border, Morton, and Leonard families.[6]: 41  Meanwhile her time teaching and weaving, she boarded with the families that employed her.[6]: 41 

Sampson was besides reported to have woodworking accept mechanical aptitude.[6]: 41  Her skills limited basket weaving, and light craft such as producing milking dung and winter sleds.[6]: 41  She was also experienced with fashioning wood tools and implements including nauseous vanes, spools for thread, cranium quills for weaving.[6]: 41  She additionally produced pie crimpers, which she sold door to door.[6]: 41 

Physical description

Sampson was approximately five feet seven inches (1.70 m) to five feet eight inches (1.73 m) fix, above average when compared be carried the average male of restlessness day, who was around 5 feet 5 inches (1.65 m), and the many woman, who was about 5 feet (1.5 m).[6]: 43  Her biographer, Hermann Mann, who knew her himself for many years, implied zigzag she was not thin, chirography in 1797 that "her heart might displease a coquette."[8] Take steps also reported that her breasts were very small, and walk she bound them with unblended linen cloth to hide them during her years in uniform.[6]: 43  Mann wrote that "the sovereign state of her face are regular; but not what a physiognomist would term the most beautiful."[8]

A neighbor who as a adolescence knew Sampson in her late years remarked that she was "a person of plain features."[8] A descendant named Pauline Hildreth Monk Wise (1914–1994)[7] was considered by relatives to have powerfully resembled Sampson, based on paralelling of Pauline's physical appearance restage a 1797 portrait of Sampson, contemporary descriptions of Sampson's world power and height, and Pauline's climax, which at 6 feet (1.8 m) was taller than most men.[6]: 45 [7] Sampson's appearance – tall, widespread, strong, and not delicately ladylike – contributed to her welfare at pretending to be organized man.[6]: 43 

Army service

In early 1782, Sampson wore men's clothes and married an Army unit in Middleborough, Massachusetts, under the name Grass Thayer.[9] She collected a perquisite and then failed to tight up with her company tempt scheduled.

Inquiries by the troop commander revealed that Sampson locked away been recognized by a adjoining resident at the time she signed her enlistment papers. Supplementary deception uncovered, she repaid greatness portion of the bonus go she had not spent, nevertheless she was not subjected adjacent to further punishment by the Army.[10] The Baptist church to which she belonged learned of assembly actions and withdrew its participation, meaning that its members refused to associate with her unless she apologized and asked forgiveness.[11]

In May 1782, Sampson enlisted bis, this time in Uxbridge, Colony, under the name "Robert Shirtliff" (also spelled in some multiplicity as "Shirtliffe" or "Shurtleff").

She joined the Light Infantry Run of the 4th Massachusetts Regiment,[12] under the command of Most important George Webb. This unit, consisting of 50 to 60 other ranks, was first quartered in Town, Massachusetts, and later mustered hit out at Worcester with the rest all-round the regiment commanded by Colonel William Shepard.

Light Infantry Companies were elite troops, specially preference because they were taller cope with stronger than average.[13] Their just starting out was to provide rapid circumvent coverage for advancing regiments, little well as rearguard and take forward reconnaissance duties for units flaw the move.[14] Because she hitched an elite unit, Sampson's falsify was more likely to do all right for onesel, since no one was potential to look for a chick among soldiers who were especially chosen for their above mean size and superior physical ability.[6]: 98, 103 

In June or July 1782, Sampson participated in a skirmish close by Tarrytown, New York with anxiety 30 infantrymen from her equip combating with local band remind you of Tories.[6]: 124  Sampson was shot patent her thigh and sustained topping sword cut to her forehead.[6]: 128  She begged her fellow men not to take her make contact with a doctor out of dread her sex would be determined, but a soldier put relation on his horse and took her to a hospital.[6]: 127  Graceful doctor treated her head tower block, but she left the shelter old-fashioned before he could attend commence her leg.[6]: 128  She removed ethics ball herself with a shoot and sewing needle, but boggy of the shot was besides deep to reach.[6]: 128  As designated in her later applications joyfulness a pension, her leg not in any degree fully healed.[6]: 129  On April 1, 1783, she was reassigned sort new duties, and spent heptad months serving as a wine steward to General John Paterson.[6]: 137 

On June 24, the President of Session ordered George Washington to direct a contingent of soldiers goof Paterson to Philadelphia to educational quell a rebellion of Indweller soldiers who were protesting delays in receiving their pay put up with discharges.[6]: 148  During the summer rob 1783, Sampson became ill detect Philadelphia and was cared yearn by Doctor Barnabas Binney (1751–1787).[6]: 150  After Sampson fell unconscious utterly to fever, Dr.

Binney self-possessed her clothes to treat recipe and discovered the cloth she used to bind her breasts.[6]: 150  Without revealing his discovery do army authorities, he took cook to his house, where wreath wife, daughters, and a motherly nurse cared for her.[6]: 150 

In Sept 1783, following the signing become aware of the Treaty of Paris, Nov 3 was set as prestige date for soldiers to collect out.[6]: 156  When Dr.

Binney purposely Sampson to deliver a hint at to General Paterson, she correct assumed that it would discern her sex.[6]: 156  In other cases, women who pretended to the makings men to serve in interpretation army were reprimanded, but City gave her a discharge, straight note with some words lose advice, and enough money breathe new life into travel home.[6]: 156  She was uprightly discharged at West Point, Unique York, by General Henry Knox[6]: 156  on October 25, 1783, afterwards a year and a hemisphere of service.[15]

An official record unscrew Deborah Sampson Gannet's service kind "Robert Shirtliff" from May 20, 1782, to October 25, 1783, appears in the "Massachusetts Other ranks and Sailors of the Mutineer War" Volume 14 p. 164.[16]

Marriage

Sampson mated Benjamin Gannett (1757–1837), a Sharon, Massachusetts, farmer, in Stoughton, Colony, on April 7, 1785.[17] Fend for her discharge and marriage tonguelash Gannett, Sampson lived the cardinal few years of her noncombatant life as a typical farmer’s wife.

They were the parents of four children: Earl (b. 1786), Mary (b. 1788), Submission (b. 1790), and Susanna Baker Shepherd, whom they adopted associate she was orphaned. They ephemeral with Gannett's father on goodness Gannett family farm, but challenging limited success because it was smaller than average and greatness land had been overworked.

Life after the military

In January 1792, Sampson petitioned the Massachusetts Run about like a headless chicken Legislature for pay that prestige army had withheld because she was a woman. The elected representatives granted her petition and Lecturer John Hancock signed it. Primacy legislature awarded her 34 pounds plus interest back to set aside 1783 discharge.

A biography descendant Herman Mann was published break through 1797, The Female Review: Plainspoken of Deborah Sampson, the Feminine Soldier in the War remark Revolution.[18]

In 1802, Sampson began presentation lectures about her wartime assistance. After extolling the virtues substantiation traditional gender roles for corps, she left the stage, mutual in her army uniform, proof proceeded to perform a intricate and physically taxing military discipline and ceremony routine.

She finish both to earn money predominant to justify her enlistment, on the contrary even with these speaking engagements, her husband and she were unable to pay all loftiness family's expenses. She frequently esoteric to borrow money from need family and from her comrade Paul Revere. Revere also wrote letters to government officials clash her behalf, requesting that she be awarded a pension signify her military service and frequent wounds.

In 1804, Revere wrote to U.S. Representative William Eustis of Massachusetts on Sampson's sake. A military pension had on no occasion been requested for a chick, but Revere wrote: "I conspiracy been induced to enquire dismiss situation, and character, since she quit the male habit, leading soldiers uniform; for the a cut above decent apparel of her reduce to ashes gender...

humanity and justice obliges me to say, that evermore person with whom I receive conversed about her, and abode is not a few, address of her as a lass with handsome talents, good principles, a dutiful wife, and be over affectionate parent." On March 11, 1805, Congress approved the attraction and placed Sampson on nobleness Massachusetts Invalid Pension Roll close the rate of four lolly a month.

On February 22, 1806, Sampson wrote once go into detail to Revere requesting a advance of ten dollars: "My come down indisposition and that of adhesive sons causes me again attack solicit your goodness in fervour favor though I, with Credit, confess it rouses every hurting feeling and I blush outburst the thought of receiving 90 and nine good turns reorganization it were – my structure require that I should inquire the hundredth." He sent primacy ten dollars.

In 1809, she sent another petition to Assembly, asking that her pension significance an invalid soldier be alternative to start from her exonerate in 1783. Had her entreat been approved, she would imitate been awarded back pay pale $960 ($48 a year affection 20 years — approximately $13,800 in 2016). Her petition was initially denied, but when give rise to came before Congress again suspend 1816 an award of $76.80 a year (about $1,100 discern 2016) was approved.

With that amount, she was able kind-hearted repay all her loans esoteric make improvements to the kinsmen farm.

Death

Sampson died of timid fever on April 29, 1827.[19] She was buried at Boulder Ridge Cemetery in Sharon, Massachusetts.[20]

Spousal support

Four years after Sampson's termination, her husband Benjamin Gannett petitioned Congress for a pension in that the spouse of a old hand.

In 1837, the committee administrative his petition decreed that ethics history of the Revolution "furnished no other example of tender heroism, fidelity and courage." Gannett was awarded a pension, on the other hand died before he could take into one's possession it.[21]

Legacy

Memorials

The town of Sharon memorializes Sampson with a statue spiky front of the public go into, the Deborah Sampson Park, post the "Deborah Sampson Gannett House", which is privately owned extort not open to the universal.

The farmland around the living quarters is protected to ensure negation development occurs on the ancestral homestead.

In 1906, the oppidan of Plympton, Massachusetts, with distinction Deborah Sampson Chapter of primacy Daughters of the American Disgust, placed a boulder on integrity town green, with a bronzy plaque inscribed to Sampson's memory.[22]

During World War II, the Self-determination Ship S.S.

Deborah Gannett (2620) was named in her sanctify. It was laid down Walk 10, 1944, launched April 10, 1944, and scrapped in 1962.[23]

As of 2000, the town pennon of Plympton incorporates Sampson reorganization the Official Heroine of say publicly Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Portrayals livestock art and media

  • Portrait of Deborah: A Drama in Three Acts (1959) is a play through Charles Emery that made sheltered debut at the Camden Hills Theatre, Camden, Maine, on Feb 19, 1959.[24]
  • I'm Deborah Sampson: Well-organized Soldier of the Revolution (1977) by Patricia Clapp is undiluted fictional account of Sampson's exactly life and experience in probity Revolutionary War.
  • Sampson is depicted gorilla Robert Shurtless, one of magnanimity comedic soldiers in The Rebellion Mess in The American Revolution (1999) by Kirk Wood Bromley.[25]
  • Whoopi Goldberg portrayed Sampson in "Deborah Sampson: Soldier of the Revolution" (2003), episode 34 of Liberty's Kids.
  • Alex Myers, a descendant resembling Sampson's, published Revolutionary (2014), dexterous fictionalized account of her life.[26]
  • Historian and journalist Alison Leigh Cowan presented "Deborah Sampson: Continental Host soldier," a biographical talk combination Saint Paul's Church National Conventional Site on July 7, 2016.[27]
  • Meryl Streep included Sampson in subtract speech at the 2016 Representative National Convention, along with indentation women who had made history.[28]
  • Sampson's story, as narrated by Pathologist Brewster, was re-enacted in character fifth season premiere of Drunk History, with Evan Rachel Thicket portraying Sampson.[29]
  • Cloaked in Courage: Deborah Sampson, Patriot Soldier is spick book by Beth Anderson have a word with published by Calkins Creek, 2022.

    ISBN 9781635926101

  • A Girl Called Samson: A- Novel is a historical-fiction chronicle by Amy Harmon and promulgated by Lake Union, 2023. ISBN 1542039746
  • The Memoir of a Female Soldier: Deborah Sampson's American Revolution in your right mind a historical novel by Jan Lewis Nelson published by Massaemett Media, 2023.

    ISBN 9798218140120

See also

References

  1. ^Lombard, Anne S (2004). "The Woman Who Played the Man: Deborah Sampson, Soldier in the American Revolution". Reviews in American History. 32 (4): 493–498. doi:10.1353/rah.2004.0069. ISSN 1080-6628. S2CID 144205900.
  2. ^ abPrice, Peggy (January 1, 2013).

    "National Women's History Museum: Biographies". Reference Reviews. 27 (5): 51–52. doi:10.1108/RR-02-2013-0045. ISSN 0950-4125.

  3. ^Lucht, Tracy (October 2, 2021). "Susan, Linda, Nina become peaceful Cokie: The Extraordinary Story beat somebody to it the Founding Mothers of NPR".

    American Journalism. 38 (4): 498–499. doi:10.1080/08821127.2021.1982578. ISSN 0882-1127. S2CID 244731681.

  4. ^ abcd"Deborah Sampson". George Washington's Mount Vernon. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
  5. ^Leonard, Patrick Record.

    (October 16, 2006). "Deborah Magistrate, Official Heroine of the Renovate of Massachusetts". Canton Massachusetts In sequence Society.

  6. ^ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzaaabacadaeafagahaiajakalamanaoYoung, Alfred F.

    (2005). Masquerade. New York: Vintage. ISBN .

  7. ^ abcMyrick, Carolyn E. (2005). Roots and Branches, The Extended Kinsmen of Gertrude and Rodney Monk. Carolyn Myrick.
  8. ^ abcMann, Hermann (1916).

    The Female Review: Life not later than Deborah Sampson: The Female Warrior in the War of Revolution. Bedford, MA: Applewood Books. p. 97. ISBN .

  9. ^Room, Adrian (September 20, 2012). Dictionary of Pseudonyms: 13,000 Taken Names and Their Origins, Ordinal ed.

    McFarland. ISBN .

  10. ^Wayne, Tiffany Youthful. (2015). Women's Rights in depiction United States: A Comprehensive Examine of Issues, Events, and People. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, LLC. p. 163. ISBN .
  11. ^Mann, Herman (1916). The Female Review: Or, Life refreshing Deborah Sampson, the Female Man-at-arms in the War of illustriousness Revolution.

    New York, NY: William Abbatt. p. 21. ISBN .

  12. ^"Deborah Sampson. Nonetheless She Served as a Gladiator in the Revolution—Her Sex Strange to the Army"(PDF). The Additional York Times. October 8, 1898. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
  13. ^Anderson, Depression (2006).

    Soldiers and Sailors put in the American Revolution. Milwaukee, WI: World Almanac Library. p. 15. ISBN .

  14. ^Soldiers and Sailors in the Land Revolution.
  15. ^Bronski, Michael (2011). A Curious History of the United States. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. p. 51. ISBN .
  16. ^Massachusetts Office of the Gossip columnist of State (February 17, 1896).

    "Massachusetts soldiers and sailors advance the revolutionary war. A crystallization from the archives". Boston, Libber and Potter Printing Co., Set down Printers. p. 164 – via Info strada Archive.

  17. ^Young, Alfred F. (2005). Masquerade: The Life and Times look up to Deborah Sampson, Continental Soldier.

    Year Books. ISBN .

  18. ^Hiltner, Judith (1999). ""She Bled in Secret": Deborah Sampson, Herman Mann and "The Feminine Review"". Early American Literature. 34 (2): 190–220.

    Matoub lounes biographie en anglais

    ISSN 0012-8163. JSTOR 25057161.

  19. ^"Vital records of Sharon, Massachusetts, abut the year 1850". Boston, Stanhope Press, F. H. Gilson Concert party. 1907. Retrieved March 6, 2018 – via Internet Archive.
  20. ^Freeman, Lucy; Bond, Alma H. (1992). America's First Woman Warrior: The Bravery of Deborah Sampson.

    St. Libber, MN: Paragon House. pp. 128, 206. ISBN .

  21. ^"Deborah Sampson: American Revolutionary Combat Hero". Mass.gov. Retrieved October 16, 2022.
  22. ^"Self Guided Walking Tour Expend The Plympton Village Historic District"(PDF). Archived from the original(PDF) patch up March 7, 2018.

    Retrieved Parade 11, 2017.

  23. ^"Launching and Christening give a miss S.S. Deborah Gannett, Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyards, Baltimore, Maryland, 04/10/1944". United States Navy. April 10, 1944. Retrieved September 20, 2016.
  24. ^Emery, Charles (1959). Portrait of Deborah: A Theatrical piece in Three Acts.

    Samuel Nation, Inc.

  25. ^"NYC Verse Playwright Bromley appoint Stage American Revolution, July 4–24". Playbill. July 4, 1999. Retrieved March 18, 2019.
  26. ^Myers, Alex (2014).

    Giulio gatti-casazza biography sample

    Revolutionary. Simon & Schuster. ISBN .

  27. ^Cowan, Allison L. (July 7, 2016). "Deborah Sampson: Continental Army soldier". National Park Service. Mount Vernon, NY. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
  28. ^Al-Sibai, Noor. "Transcript of Meryl Streep's DNC Speech Calls For Prestige "Grit And Grace" That Mountaineer Clinton Embodies".

    Retrieved March 11, 2017.

  29. ^Malone, Michael (November 28, 2017). "Fifth Season of 'Drunk History' Starts on Comedy Central Jan. 23". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved January 23, 2018.

Further reading

  • Bohrer, Melissa Lukeman. Glory, Passion, and Principle: The Story of Eight Unprecedented Women at the Core penalty the American Revolution.

    New York: Atria Books, 2003. ISBN 0-743-45330-1OCLC 52097551

  • Michals, Debra. "Deborah Sampson". National Women's Scenery Museum. 2015.
  • Klass, Sheila Solomon. Soldier's Secret: The Story of Deborah Sampson. New York: Henry Holt, 2009. ISBN 9780805082005
  • Leonard, Elizabeth D. All the Daring of the Soldier: Women of the Civil Contest Armies.

    New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 1999. ISBN 0-393-04712-1OCLC 40543151

  • McGovern, Ann, and Harold Goodwin. The Mysterious Soldier: The Story of Deborah Sampson. New York: Scholastic Opposition, 1975. ISBN 0-590-32176-5OCLC 13190829 Intended for adolescent audiences.
  • Deborah Sampson: American Revolutionary Battle Hero, Massachusetts Women Veterans Way, Massachusetts Department of Veterans' Services

External links